AUSTINTOWN Students use heads to help ailing friend
Students had collected $934 by the start of school Friday. Within an hour, the amount grew to nearly $1,700.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Sure, the weather was warm Friday, but Fitch High School senior Terry DeSalvo pulled on his green fleece "Grinch" hat before he went to school.
And it was warm inside, as sun streamed through the windows, but he kept his head covered throughout the day.
DeSalvo was one of hundreds of students who wore a hat to school -- usually a prohibited act -- as part of a fund-raiser for classmate Kris Faber, also a senior, who is battling cancer. Students who wore a hat were required to donate at least $1 to Faber.
Faber was diagnosed with testicular cancer in July. The disease led to tumors in his chest and brain. He's undergone chemotherapy and surgery and continues to fight.
Senior Chris Schwab said Faber's friends wanted to do something for him. They first thought of buying him a gift but then, Schwab said, "We thought we could do so much more." Schwab teamed up with head principal Doug McGlynn and they started the fund-raiser. In a few days, they had collected $934.
Donations: When McGlynn announced Friday morning that they needed $66 to reach $1,000, more donations poured in.
"Within an hour, we had another $800," McGlynn said. "Kids gave up their lunch money, everything. Teachers, kids, everybody gave up for Kris."
The group collected roughly $1,700, about a dollar for each one of the 1,650-member student body.
DeSalvo's "Grinch" bobbed around the hallways alongside several other hats, including sombreros, "Donald Duck" and some winter wear reminiscent of the movie "Fargo." Longtime friend Josh Starr, a senior, went tropical with a wide-brimmed straw hat. It blocked the unusually warm December sun.
Visit: Faber, who is being tutored outside school because of his extensive treatment schedule, visited Fitch to accept the donation.
"I was overwhelmed," Faber said. "This is the greatest group of kids up here at Fitch. They really pulled together for me. ... I wish them all well. I'll never forget them."
Faber's mother, Deborah, said she and her husband, Gary, never had health insurance. She has applied for help through government programs but said the donations will help with bills that have been pouring in since her son's diagnosis.
When he was first diagnosed, Faber underwent one course of intensive chemotherapy treatment at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown. He is now in the middle of a second course of a different type of chemotherapy at Cleveland University Hospitals.
Recently, surgeons removed a tumor from his brain, and told him he's clear there. The tumor in his chest has shrunk from the size of a grapefruit or cantaloupe to about 2 centimeters in diameter. He'll undergo open-heart surgery to clear what remains after doctors determine the chemotherapy has done its job.
Appreciative: He said he's "been through the war" with many ups and downs, but has won each battle so far and come a long way. And, he said, his illness has inspired him to go into medicine or another field where he can "help less fortunate people who probably haven't had it as good as I've had it so far."
His friends call him amazing because he has refused to let the disease take away his life. Four days after his brain surgery, Faber joined his friends for a flick at a theater.
"It's been a fight and everything, but I'm hanging in there and my spirits are good," Faber said. "I have so many people around me, my family, my friends. I couldn't do it without them."